Friday, July 04, 2008

Earlier this spring my parents took a trip to San Diego and visited the USS Midway - now the most visited floating museum in the world. It was a special event, particularly for my dad, who'd served on the Midway as an A-6 pilot in the mid-70s.

What follows are a couple of things: a general history of a remarkable ship; a history of a remarkable squadron; an overview of aircraft that have served on the Midway, and a series of slides from 1974 to 1977 - snapshots of the Cold War from a squadron perspective - a pilot's perspective.

To ensure the accuracy of these posts, I invite any reader who stumbles across an error or notices an omission to bring the matter to my attention and I will make the appropriate adjustments. You can do so by leaving a comment on the post or by sending me an email here.

Like her name suggests, the USS Midway was born out of battle hardened experience and wartime ingenuity. There is something almost organic about her life - even during the earliest moments of construction the Midway was adapting to a changing world. For 47 years she went through a variety of modernizations that kept her and her men at the vanguard of U.S. naval power, responding to crises and providing service well beyond the scope of her planners' intentions. Today's role of aircraft carriers, in no small degree, is born out of what the Midway did as experimentation and precedence. She's been a nuclear deterrent, a scientific guinea pig, an escape for refugees, a symbol of American power and humanity, and, of course, a lethal weapon. The Midway has handled WWII era warbirds and today's Hornet and a good chunk of everything in between and has been a showroom of seafaring aviation. All in all, the Midway’s story serves as a microcosm of U.S. Naval evolution during its most dynamic and tumultuous period in terms of technological advancement and political importance to the world. If you wanted to get an idea at what the U.S. Navy was up to at any given time from 1945 to 1991, taking a look at what the Midway was doing would give you a pretty good glimpse.

CONSTRUCTIONThe Midway’s hull, ordered in 1942 and laid down at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock, was originally planned for a new Montana class of battleship. It incorporated innovations and ideas picked up after the early battles in the Pacific War - thicker steel and more transverse bulkheads - innovations that provided extra protection against torpedo attacks. In the wake of the Battle of Midway and other action, the Navy had also noticed the rise in importance of aircraft carriers and focused more urgent construction towards them. Using the Midway's giant battleship hull for a new larger class of carrier was a tricky endeavor, but made sense during the rushed wartime construction of 1943. The unique design gave the Midway excellent maneuverability, uncommon for a carrier, but those same features also caused her to pitch and roll excessively. The weight of the flight deck further aggravated her ability to launch and retrieve aircraft in heavier waters. Athough six Midway class carriers were planned, only three were actually built and, for the first ten years of her life, the Midway was the largest ship in the world - the first of a succession of carriers to be too large to pass through the Panama Canal.

SHAKEDOWN & EARLY OPERATIONSThe Midway was commissioned days after the Pacific War ended in 1945 sponsored by Mrs. Bradford D. Ripley II, the widow of a naval aviator who died in the war (she was also known as Heiress Barbara Cox Anthony, one of the richest women in Hawaii). She was accompanied by Lt. George Gay who was part of VT-8, a squadron that was almost entirely wiped out during the Battle of Midway. Lt. George Gay was the only survivor of 30 men. While he floated in the water, he witnessed the American attack that sank three Japanese carriers and instantly turned the tide of the war before being picked up the next morning by a PBY. Lt. Gay later served with the VT-11 over Guadalcanal, a squadron that years later would serve on the Midway for two decades as the VA-115.

Norfolk was the Midway's first home. After a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, she served in the Atlantic as the Flagship for Carrier Division 1. During Operation FROSTBITE (1946) the Midway sailed in the Labrador Sea, near the Arctic Circle, testing carrier flight operations in extreme cold conditions, often with 3 to 4 inches of snow and ice on the deck. This operation was made particularly relevant by the prominence of the Soviet navy who operated in similar waters. The Midway's stability concerns, first perceived during the shakedown cruise, became more acute in the choppy North Atlantic waters.

The Midway was back in the Caribbean in September of 1947 for Operation SANDY, in which a captured V-2 rocket was launched off the carrier's unmodified flight deck. It was the first time a rocket had been fired off a moving platform or a ship at sea. In this regard, Operation SANDY was the dawn of naval missile warfare. Given the unpredictable nature of the V-2, the launch was an extremely dangerous venture. The V-2 cleared the ship's conning tower, then tilted off course and was destroyed before it could reach any nearby islands.

MEDITERRANEAN PERIODFrom November of 1947 to March of 1948, the Midway made the first of seven voyages to the Mediterranean. On the second Mediterranean cruise, from January to March of 1949, the Midway launched a large P2V Neptune on a nonstop 25 hour 4,800 mile flight to San Diego with a detour over the Panama Canal and Corpus Christi to display its nuclear strike capability. The Navy had modified twelve Neptunes to launch from one of the three Midway class carriers. They were too large to use the ships' hydraulic catapults and had to use booster rockets for take-off. Nor could the Neptune land on the carriers. At the time, however, the Neptune was the only aircraft available that could make a carrier launch, even under such particular conditions, carrying a 9000 lb. atomic bomb.

The Midway returned to the North Atlantic in 1949, this time operating within the Arctic Circle and earning her entry into the The Royal Order of the Blue Nose. By 1950 she was back in the Mediterranean and was the Flagship of Air Group Four. When war broke out in Korea, the Midway, instead of rushing to the scene, was kept in the Mediterranean to maintain the nuclear deterrent against the Soviet Union. At the time, only the Midway class carriers were capable of handling the planes large enough to carry nuclear bombs, and the need for her to guard NATOs southern flank was more urgent than providing air support in the Korean theater.

Returning to Norfolk after a fourth cruise to the Mediterranean, the Midway received several modifications - namely the removal of some guns to reduce weight and extra reinforcement to the flight deck so that she could handle heavier jet aircraft as well as the composite engine Savage, which replaced the P2V Neptune. In January of 1952, the Midway was back in the Mediterranean for the fifth time - this time with Air Group Six - participating in a NATO exercise called Operation GRAND SLAM.

WORLD CRUISEIn December of 1954 the Midway transferred to the Pacific after a round-the-world cruise and joined the Seventh Fleet. She reached Taiwan during the first Taiwan Straits Crises in February of 1955. Days after the U.S. Senate ratified the Formosa Resolution on 28 January, which called for U.S. intervention in the event of a Communist invasion of Taiwan, the Red Chinese, after weeks of threatening the nearby Tachen Islands (then controlled by the Nationalists), started shelling Tachen in preparation for an invasion. The Seventh Fleet, with the Midway as the flagship of Carrier Division Four, immediately took action. The USS Stoddard rushed to Okinawa to retrieve Rear Admiral Ruble, the commanding officer of the evacuation effort, and brought him to the Taiwan Straits. On 7 February the admiral and his staff were transferred via cable to the lead ship in the evacuation effort, the Midway, in seas so rough that the move left the admiral and his aides drenched.* During the crisis the Midway provided air cover as 24,000 military personnel and Tachen civilians (along with their livestock) escaped the island and the communist onslaught. After the operation the Midway continued to patrol the Taiwan Straits into June before completing the last leg of her round-the-world cruise. She arrived in Alameda on July, 1955.FIRST MODERNIZATIONIn October the Midway relocated to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and was decommissioned in order to receive the first of what would eventually be three major modernization projects. When she emerged and was recommissioned in September 1957, she was practically a brand new ship. Much of her WWII era armor and anti-aircraft guns, now obsolete, had been removed. She received an enclosed "hurricane" deck, an expanded bridge and, most significant of all, an angled deck which allowed the Midway to launch and retrieve aircraft simultaneously, whereas a traditional straight deck could only perform one operation at a time, a vulnerability the Japanese learned too well during the Battle of Midway. Along with the angled deck the Midway moved and enlarged her three elevators for improved efficiency and to handle larger and heavier aircraft. Three steam catapults were installed, two at the bow and one on the angled portion of the deck. The Midway's flight deck also received jet blast deflectors, improved arresting equipment and the largest aviation crane ever put on a carrier at that time.

With her new flight deck, the Midway was able to accommodate supersonic aircraft for the first time. In August of 1958, when she departed for the Western Pacific, she contained, as part of Air Wing 2, a squadron of F-8 Crusaders (the VF-211 Red Checkertails), and a squadron of F3H Demons (the VF-64 Free Lancers), both supersonic aircraft. During that first cruise, a Demon from the Free Lancers became the first Navy fighter to fire the new Sparrow missile.

PACIFIC OPERATIONSIn late August of 1958, the Quemoy-Matsu crisis (the second Taiwan Straits crisis) began. Again, the Red Chinese threatened the Chinese Nationalists by attempting to seize Quemoy and Matsu, two islands occupied by the Nationalists near Taiwan. The Communists had actually shelled the islands back in 1954 through April of 1955 as a diversion for their invasion of the Tachen Islands. Whereas the U.S. was unwilling to include the Tachen islands in the Formosa Resolution, it did re-affirm that Quemoy and Matsu, which held a quarter of Chiang Kai Shek's forces, were both defensible by the Seventh Fleet and would fall under the security umbrella of the resolution. The fleet, with the Midway, this time as the flagship of Carrier Division Five, sailed to the Taiwan Straits as a show of support for the Nationalists. With the memory of over a million men lost during their last entanglement with U.S. forces in Korea and in light of a few deliberately placed remarks from Eisenhower regarding the use of nuclear weapons to defend Taiwan, the Red Chinese backed down from their attempt to seize Matsu and Quemoy.

From August 1958 to May 1964 the Midway embarked from Alameda on five cruises to the Western Pacific. The average cruise was about six months. In 1961 the Midway responded to the Laotian crisis and operated off the coast of Vietnam. In 1962 she participated in exercises to test the air defenses of Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Taiwan. In 1963, while off the coast of California, the first fully automated landings on a carrier took place on the Midway when an F-4 Phantom and F-8 Crusader both touched down on her deck.

VIETNAM, PART ONEThe Midway embarked on her first combat cruise to Vietnam on 6 March 1965. Over the next eight months, during the course of that cruise, the Midway's aircraft flew just shy of 12,000 combat missions. On 17 June, F-4 Phantoms from the VF-21 Free Lancers were credited with two kills of MiG-17s over Vietnam (a possible third was unconfirmed). Three days later, two pair of Skyraiders from the VA-25 Fist of the Fleet were intercepted by two MiG-17s. The Skyraiders, prop driven planes far slower than the MiGs, dropped their load and, flying low to the jungle canopy for cover, managed to shoot down one of the MiGs. These three kills constituted the first MiG 17s shot down over Vietnam. When the Midway returned to Alameda in November of 1965, she received the Navy Unit Commendation Medal as well as the Battle Efficiency "E".

SECOND MODERNIZATIONIn February of 1966, the Midway was decommissioned a second time for another massive modernization program. This time, her deck was expanded from just under 3 acres to just over 4 acres. Her elevators and bow catapults received increased weight capacity to handle ever heavier jets. To reduce weight, the third catapult on the cross deck was removed. The angle of the cross deck was changed from 10 degrees to 13 degrees and she received improved arresting gear to go along with a longer run out, causing less stress on the landing aircraft and allowing the ship to handle planes a third heavier than before. She also received a sophisticated computerized tactical data system. The Midway reemerged 4 years later, again, as the most modern conventionally powered carrier in the fleet. But because the program had gone 230% over budget, it was controversial and had an impact over the fate of other carriers that had been considered for similar modernization programs.

VIETNAM, PART TWOAfter spending 1970 going through refresher training and shakedown, the Midway headed out to Yankee Station for her second Vietnam combat cruise. During the intense flight operations during this cruise, the Midway's crew was sending up to 150 sorties a day. Because of a North Vietnamese invasion into South Vietnam, the Midway was hurried back out to Yankee Station for a third combat cruise. The Midway's aircraft played a crucial role in stopping the North Vietnamese from resupplying men and equipment into South Vietnam. Also of note during this cruise, a HH-3A chopper from the HC-7 Seadevils flew twenty miles behind enemy lines through mountainous terrain and enemy fire to retrieve a downed A-7 pilot - the deepest penetration for a rescue mission by a helicopter since 1968. And on 12 January 1973, an F-4 from the VF-161 Chargers scored the last MiG in the war, three days prior to the ceasefire.

FORWARD BASE POSITIONINGOver the following two decades, the Midway distinguished herself in yet another way. Departing Alameda for Yokosuka on 11 September 1973, she became the first and only forward-based carrier in the U.S. Navy as a result of an agreement with Japan. The agreement was made during a trend in Japan of closing and consolidating U.S. bases. In 1951, shortly after the peace treaty, the U.S. operated 3,848 military facilities in Japan. That number dropped significantly at the end of the occupation (by about 1000) and continued to drop until, by 1972, the number of U.S. military facilities was around 100. Although leftist Japanese opposition to the Japanese-American alliance had lost influence since its peak in 1960, it nevertheless still made a lot of noise. To these groups, any tidbit was reason enough to charge that the Americans were violating the trust of the Japanese. For example, when goats appeared in the grassy fields around Atsugi, opposition groups claimed it was proof positive that chemical weapons were illegally being stored there despite U.S. denials, and that the goats were being used as an early detection system for possible leaks. As it turned out, the goats were used as cheap lawnmowers. In another instance, opposition groups discovered that a phone directory at a Marine base in Iwakuni referenced a unit with a name alluding to something nuclear. Again, the opposition groups charged that this was proof of a violation and that nuclear weapons were stored at the facility. In reality, the unit was simply providing training in the event of a nuclear attack. Still, the charges persisted until a Japanese inspection team was called in to verify the American claims. These groups consistently harassed and tried to obstruct U.S. military operations, but after the handover of Okinawa back to the Japanese, much of the wind was taken out of their sails. Nevertheless, prior to the agreement, Yokosuka, which had served as a key U.S. naval facility, was slated to be handed over to the JSDF. That Yokosuka (and Atsugi, already predominately occupied by Japanese forces) so quickly became a focal point of a new long term commitment which allowed the U.S. to strengthen its presence in the region indefinitely was a remarkable development and speaks to the strong partnership evolving between the two countries. The agreement, including the Navy's Overseas Family Residency Program, was a win-win for both sides. Financially, it meant that the economy surrounding the base housing complex would not dry up, but it also meant a continuation of the close cooperation between the U.S. Navy and the JDFS. For the U.S., it meant we could maintain a carrier presence in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean and meet all our security commitments at a fraction of the cost during a time when the U.S. Navy was having to cut back on the total number of carriers in the fleet. The Family Residency program was also important for morale and retention rates. The transition from a conscription system to a fully volunteer force meant that the Navy would have to find innovative ways to maintain enlistments. Having a program that allowed sailors to keep their families closer to their area of operation was a godsend in a variety of ways.

The U.S., however, was not permitted to have nuclear weapons in Japan. This stipulation meant the carriers must find another location to keep their nuclear arsenal when not at sea. That location, in the case of the Midway, was the Philippines. Understandably, the possession of nuclear weapons was the Midway's most sensitive matter and at no time was the presence of nuclear warheads disclosed publicly. Weapons were carefully cataloged. If an A-6 took off from Cubi Point with a bomb, the serial number would be scrupulously checked upon departure and re-checked upon arrival to the Midway and vice-verse. The weapons were carefully stored under lock and key and Marines were dispatched to guard them. Strict guidelines were used in handling of the weapons. For instance, while on board ship, only aviators traveling in pairs could enter the area to check on the ordnance before or after a flight. When the weapons were brought on deck, only authorized personnel were able to even look at them while other personnel were ordered to get down and face the deck until the weapons were no longer in the vicinity. Meanwhile, the Marines in charge of the security had strict orders to enforce.

Though maintaining her nuclear ability was one of the Midway's most sensitive logistical concerns, it was not the only one. Keeping a carrier home based in the Far East meant that the supply lines, when not simply outsourced, needed to stretch across the ocean. It also meant that the considerable maintenance of the ship would have to be done thousands of miles away from the States. Regarding the former, it was somewhat convenient for the Midway that the U.S. Navy maintained a policy of refueling and resupplying its ships entirely at sea - at the time the only navy in the world to do so. About every two or three days the Midway would take on fuel for herself and her air wing. Resupplying was done side by side with the supply ships, often in heavy seas. There was a danger inherent in this system (evidenced by some of the accidents detailed below) but it kept the fleet at its peak readiness. Regarding the maintenance: the Midway utilized her neighborhood ports. Her flight deck routinely received a new surface while in port in the Philippines, using Filipino contractors. In Hong Kong, Chinese crews would give the ship a new coat of paint. Her electrical work was done in Yokosuka by Japanese electricians. This system benefited everyone. The U.S. received the maintenance work at a fraction of of cost while the work created many jobs for the local economies.

It also required some coordination as well. During one cruise, perhaps the first since the Japanese electricians received the contract for the Midway - she wasn't out to sea a day when she tried to switch to her own power only to end up powerless, dead in the water. The reason? The American design of the ship meant that her ground wires came off a negative current, whereas in Japan, the custom is to make the positive the ground. However, once such issues were resolved, the system resulted in a more efficient upkeep for the Midway. And in Japan, it meant that the community in Yokosuka directly took part in the Midway's operations - feeling pride in the ship and not just observing a foreign ship in its port.

It is somewhat noteworthy and speaks to the benevolence between the Japanese and the Americans that a U.S. aircraft carrier named after the pivotal battle in the Pacific War would now find a gracious home in Yokosuka - a place that had been a station for kamikaze squadrons just twenty-eight years before.

VIETNAM, PART THREEIn April of 1975, the Midway was called to Vietnam again, though this time it was to save refugees from the onslaught of Communist forces during the fall of Saigon. During Operation FREQUENT WIND, the Midway, after sending much of her air wing to the Philippines and bringing on extra H-53 helicopters, brought on board 3,073 U.S. personnel and Vietnamese refugees. In a dramatic moment, while they had the bulk of the refugees already on deck, a South Vietnamese pilot, flying a small Cessna, circled the Midway asking permission to land. After learning that the pilot had his five children stored on the aircraft and that having the plane touch down on the ocean was not possible, the Midway's crew pushed every available helicopter overboard and allowing the Cessna enough room to land. Once the Cessna, known as Bird Dog 1, touched down, crew members stopped it. When the children emerged from the storage compartment, the Midway's crew burst into applause. Today, the same Cessna is displayed at the Smithsonian Aerospace Museum to commemorate the moment.

TRAINING AND COMPETITIONThroughout the 1970s, the Midway participated in exercises and war games with other carriers and other vessels. The Midway, because of its forward based status, prided itself as the ship that was ever ready and got the job done while other ships were merely tourists. Even before the forward based deployment, the Midway maintained a certain pride in their efficiency and accuracy. As Midway veteran Scott Smith retells, during a multi-prong competition she had with the Kitty Hawk in the early sixties, the Midway's Skyraider attack squadron (the VA-25 Fist of the Fleet) resorted to innovative tactics to win the rocket competition:

"The competition was for the best score by a division (four planes) dropping three bombs and firing three rockets. At that time, we were still using the WW-II HVAR rockets fired from the zero-length launchers on the wings. They had a very poor fire rate because time and salt air had corroded the electrical pigtails. This was a little hairy, because unfired rockets often came off their launchers during recover. Then they went skipping up the deck and, hopefully, over the side. I figured we could get 100% firing only by loading each aircraft with six rockets. Sure enough, the flight of Arabs (VA-115) had several misfires. Our guys got off three rockets from each plane. We won the bombing competition by a few feet and won the rocket competition by default. My hedge against misfired rockets brought the trophy to Midway."

Although there was some grumbling on behalf of the Kitty Hawk crew since this singular competition had determined the entire contest, which had been tied up to that point, it was nevertheless deemed legal.

Ironically, the competing squadron on the Kitty Hawk, the VA-115 Arabs, would soon be deactivated in 1967, not long after the Midway's decomissioning, to make the transition from the A-1 Skyraider to the A-6 Intruder, and would find a home on the Midway when the ship emerged from her modernization in 1971. The VA-115 would remain on the Midway until she was retired - dealing out the same treatment to opposing squadrons as it received from the VA-25. In one instance circa 1975-76, while the Midway was battling the Enterprise, an Arab Intruder, flown Cmd. Grafton and BN Sherfill, infiltrated the opposing squadron's rotation around the Enterprise and, with the Enterprise assuming the Arab A-6 was part of its own air wing, gained clearance to land. Grafton made his approach at a slow speed with his canopy open and deliberately over-shot the arresting gear. He threw out a handful of leaflets letting the Enterprise know she had just been sunk and took off to celebrate another victory for the Midway.

THE COLD WAR AND RESPONDING TO CRISESNot all the games were with friendly rivals. In a continuation of the Great Game, the Soviets consistently played cat and mouse with the Midway, flying aircraft in close proximity to the ship or sending a destroyer or submarine to monitor the Midway's activities and learn about her defenses.

The Midway participated in Operation TEAM SPIRIT, an intense electronic warfare and bombing exercise in S. Korea near the DMZ aimed at evaluating the effectiveness and coordination of the U.S. and S. Korean forces. Since the the establishment of the DMZ, the N. Koreans routinely violated provisions of the ceasefire. Tunneling under the DMZ was common, and just prior to TEAM SPIRIT, the N. Koreans established a policy that every unit should maintain two tunnels into the South. In addition to the tunneling, the N. Koreans, through unprovoked armed attacks had left over 300 American casualties in various incidents. One such incident took place on 18 August 1976. A S. Korean work crew and two U.S. Army officers with a few enlisted men - all unarmed - entered the DMZ to take down a tree that was interfering with the view from one of the checkpoints. A group of N. Korean soldiers, watching at first, soonafter confronted them and demanded they stop. When the S. Koreans continued cutting, the N. Koreans attacked them with picks and axes, murdering the two U.S. officers and wounding a S. Korean officer, four U.S. enlisted men and three S. Korean workers.

The Midway, having recently finished with Operation TEAM SPIRIT, returned to the Korean coast for Operation PAUL BUNYAN - a show of force preceding a second and final attempt at removing the poplar tree at the center of the controversy. During the three day stand off, the N. Koreans repeatedly tried to shoot down American planes which were operating at times north of the DMZ line, but they did not interfere when another work crew, this time with heavy back-up, removed the tree.

Throughout the remainder of the 1970s the Midway participated in various joint exercises in the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean, including a two day Iranian-U.S. operation called MIDLINK '77 and a couple of exercises with the Japanese Maritime Defense Force. During the Iranian hostage crisis, the Midway was rushed to the Arabian Sea to join the Kitty Hawk and the Nimitz. The Midway also remained in the Indian Ocean as a contingency force during the outbreak of violence in Yemen between forces in the north and south of that country, partly as reassurance to the Saudis that the U.S. was still committed to the region despite the fall of the Iranian Shah.

It wasn't long before a another crisis reared its ugly head in May of 1980 - this time in S. Korea. On 26 October of 1979 a former president of S. Korea, Park Chung-hee, was assassinated, sparking student protests which led to a coup in December by Major General Chun Doo-hwan, who quickly established martial law. In May of 1980, students again protested against the closure of a university and the protests devolved into riots, later known as Gwangju Uprising. The Midway was dispatched off the coast of the Cheju-Do Island in case the civil unrest grew out of hand.

In March of 1981, after an Intruder from the VA-115 spotted a downed chartered helicopter in the South China Sea, the Midway dispatched her Fleet Angels to the site and all 17 people aboard were saved.

THIRD MODERNIZATIONThe Midway was dry docked for most of 1986 while she received major enhancements through a new forward based updating program called EISRA (Extended Incremental Selected Repair). Although her deck configuration remained the same, she received improvements to her blast deflectors, arresting gear and catapult systems. She was also fitted with larger rudders, improved fire-fighting pumps and valves and avionic shops to service her new tenant, the F-18 Hornet. The air traffic control equipment was updated and new anti-submarine capabilities were installed. Since the adjustments significantly increased her weight, almost 47 tons of unusable cable was stripped and large hull blisters were added to increase the Midway's buoyancy. These appendages hampered the her performance at sea, and stability issues that had always plague the Midway became worse. The drawbacks from the overhaul created a stir in the Senate, where a committee held hearings and actually voted to retire the ship. The Navy convinced the Senate to over-rule the committee and appropriate an additional $138 million dollars to remedy the hull issues.

OPERATION EARNEST WILLIn the Middle East, in 1987, the Iran-Iraq war was dragging on into its seventh year. Over the past three of those years, a tanker war had been fought after Iraq attacked Iranian tankers in 1984 and the Iranians retaliated by attacking Kuwaiti vessels carrying Iraqi oil. Although this tit-for-tat engagement did little to damage either side, by the third year it was enough of a threat for the U.S. to employ the largest naval convoy since World War II, called Operation EARNEST WILL, to protect Persian Gulf shipping lanes for Kuwaiti vessels. The Midway was called in to participate in the operation from 1987 to 1988.

Throughout the latter 1980s, the Midway was not idle for long. In early June of 1989, the Midway was on standby in the contingency that American citizens would need to be evacuated during the incident at Tiananmen Square. Later in 1989, still regularly patrolling the Indian Ocean, the Midway participated in Exercise THALAY, a joint operation with the Royal Thai Navy. Directly after that, the Midway made the first pier-side stop in Fremantle, Australia. When Operation CLASSIC RESOLVE began to protect Filippino President Aquino, the Midway, along with the Enterprise, were the carriers chosen for the operation. The longevity of the Midway's cruises, as well as the uninterrupted days at sea, set records and established the carrier's reputation as always being at the tip of the sword. She was serving at the tip in early 1990, when the official announcement was made for her final decommissioning in 1991.

In June of 1990 two explosions aboard the Midway killed three men and caused a fire that raged for 10 hours. The incident sparked a frenzy from the press, which speculated whether the event would hasten the Midway's retirement. It didn't.

The Midway has endured accidents before, of course. The sea presents obvious perils and the flight deck of a carrier is one of the most dangerous work environments in the world. The Midway's first accident was in February of 1948 when a launch capsized in the sea near Hyeres, France, killing eight men. In 1954, the Midway collided with a supply ship, the USS Great Sitkin, near Athens, damaging one of the Midway's 5" guns. Later during that same cruise, a F2H bounced over the barrier and into a pack of planes, killing eight men. The first of several major fires broke out in November 1959 in the pump room while the ship was at Subic Bay. The reason for the fire was thought to be arson. In 1964, the Midway lost one of her elevators while using it to bring on supplies while in heavy seas. In February 1965, a Midway aircraft was inadvertently shot down by the USS Preble, killing the pilot. In 1972, an aircraft crashed upon landing, destroying eight other aircraft and killing five men. In 1975, another crash landing killed two men. In May 1978, a fire broke out in the ventilation shafts and spread to the boiler uptakes and to the second deck. Another fire broke out in 1979 from a broken acetylene line and killed one man while injuring 17 others. In May 1980, the Midway collided with a Panamanian merchant ship, causing little damage to the carrier, but killing two men and injuring three others. In 1986, the Midway collided with another ship, this time a Korean fishing boat (there is some debate as to whether it was North or South Korea) when the boat ran into one of the Midway's elevators. In short, the Midway experienced several accidents and, for the most part, finished out her cruises. It is a testament to the vessel and her crew that there were not more fatalities over the long course of her career. The Midway has proudly received numerous safety and efficiency awards.

In October of 1990 she was patrolling the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, participating in Operation IMMINENT THUNDER in November. When Operation DESERT SHIELD started, the Midway was the only carrier operating in the Persian Gulf.

THE PERSIAN GULF WARWhen Operation DESERT STORM began, A-6 Intruders from one of the Midway's two medium attack squadrons, the VA-185 Nighthawks, were the first carrier planes over the beach. Because of the crowded narrow waters of the Persian Gulf and because of the Midway's peculiarly tight turning radius, she was able to operate in the northern reaches of the Persian Gulf where larger and newer carriers could not. Because of this unique advantage in positioning, the Midway was the Admiral's flagship for the entire strike force during the Gulf War. During the war, the Midway launched over 3,300 sorties, averaging up to 121 a day, and dropped over 4 million pounds of bombs and missiles on Iraqi targets.

FINAL OPERATIONSAfter the war, as the Midway was preparing for retirement, she was called upon one last time to the Philippines to help with an evacuation after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. Within a day of her orders, the Midway was loaded and ready to embark on Operation FIERY VIGIL. During the evacuation, she brought aboard 1,823 evacuees, mostly Air Force personnel.RETIREMENT AND MUSEUMIn August of 1991, the Midway sailed out of Yokosuka for the last time for San Diego and her final decommissioning in 1992. After spending 5 years on the inactive reserve list, she was finally stricken from the Navy's list in 1997. She was turned into a floating museum and opened up to the public on 7 June 2004. Currently, she is the most visited carrier museum in the world.

The Midway's life took on various missions. Starting out as the ultimate supercarrier for the Pacific War, she just missed combat duty in that conflict and almost immediately transitioned into a cold warrior. After seven cruises in the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic as the West's nuclear deterrent against the Soviets, she transitioned to the Pacific and helped Chinese Nationalists escape the Communist menace. Later she would help Vietnamese refugees escape the same threat under a different flag. Her aircraft shot down the first and last MiGs of the Vietnam war. Throughout the Cold War, the Midway was at the forefront of a continual dangerous cat and mouse game with the Soviets. She responded to various crises and helped to protect our allies and the world's seaplanes. When the Persian Gulf War broke out, the Midway was there to lead the task force during Operation DESERT STORM. In short, the Midway was always there to handle any situation. To maintain this constant vigilance over the better part of half a century, over 225 thousand sailors, airmen and marines served on her from 1945 to 1992. Since the Midway's decommissioning, she has re-emerged with a new mission as a museum ship. Today, the Midway sits in San Diego and is currently the most often visited museum ship in the world.

SOURCES:Most of the factual data of this history came from the excellent and concise history by Troy Prince at his Midway Sailor site, which is a gold mine of photo galleries, squadron links, cruise and squadron information and a lot more. Other sites that provided information include the resource rich, though less up to date CV-41 USS Midway, and the Naval Historical Center. The History channel's USS Midway: The Hero Ship is a good one hour primer with nice shots of Operation SANDY and Operation FROSTBITE, though much of the other footage doesn't seem to be of the Midway or her aircraft. Wikipedia has a decent basic outline of the ship, too. For information regarding the base realignment in Japan that led to the forward-positioning of the Midway, Assignment: Tokyo - an Ambassodor's Journal (1969-1972) by former ambassador to Japan, Armin H. Meyer, is well worth a look. Finally, much of the information regarding the Midway's operation from the mid-70s comes from my dad's account.

My dad kept several old squadron mugs in the kitchen cabinet at home - some with his name and the squadron's insignia on them, others with a cartoon accompanied by an aphorism on the opposite side. The one that always stuck with me was titled, "VA-115 QA Gator Control" and showed a man with his dukes up ready to fight an alligator standing on his hind legs, also with his dukes up. The statement on the other side read: "OKIE - When you're up to your ass in alligators it's too late to drain the swamp." That sentiment encapsulates the worldview of the VA-115 (now the VFA-115). It's a perspective of constant vigilance - always on guard, ready to strap on the boots and roll up the sleeves to slug it out - imperative to protecting freedom and maintaining the peace. The squadron's official motto, "We cover the world, day and night," speaks to that same thing. Throughout its life, the VA-115 has been a first responder to many hairy places and events where an attack squadron was needed most: over Okinawa, Leyte Gulf, Inchon, Tachen Islands, North and South Vietnam, throughout the Western Pacific and over Iraq - everywhere, day and night. When the VA-115 was formed in October of 1942 (as the VT-11), just ten months after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. was up to its ass in alligators and the squadron's job was to drain the swamp.

The first CO of VT-11, LCDR Frederick Ashworth, an Annapolis graduate, would go on to become Director of Operations for Project Alberta, the part of the Manhattan Project responsible for determining how to deliver the atom bomb. Ashworth was the weaponeer for the Boxcar, the B-29 that dropped Fat Boy on Nagasaki. Ashworth would retire from the Navy in 1968 as a Vice Admiral.The aircraft assigned to the new squadron was the new Grumman TBM Avenger - a big barrel of a plane with a crew of three: a pilot, bombardier and tail gunner. The Avenger was a rugged and bulky gut fighting torpedo bomber that first saw service earlier in the summer at the Battle of Midway. There were only six Avengers ready for combat at that time, having just arrived to Midway Island three days before the battle as part of VT-8, a squadron stationed on the nearby USS Hornet. The carrier contingent, waiting on the Avengers, was still flying the antiquated 1935 Douglas TBD Devastator. The six Avengers, not having enough time to join the rest of the squadron on the Hornet, flew from the island towards the heart of the large Japanese fleet without essential fighter escort. Meanwhile the 15 Devastators from the Hornet approached towards the same target area some few minutes behind the Avengers. Only one Avenger, shot all to hell, managed to limp back to the island, while all of the Devastators were shot down. Incidentally, the only survivor of the 30 men that launched off the Hornet, Lt. George H. Gay Jr, who witnessed the sinking of three Japanese carriers while floating in the sea, would recuperate and later fly Avengers with the VT-11 during the Guadalcanal campaign. (Also of interest: Lt. Gay would accompany Mrs. Bradford D. Ripley, II, the sponsor of the USS Midway, while she christened the carrier weeks after the war ended in 1945.)

The Avenger continued to have a rough time in combat over the summer of 1942, suffering heavy losses while yielding light damage on the enemy, but much of this was due, not just to the inherent danger of the mission, but to the failings and limitations of the Mark 13 torpedo, which the Avenger dropped. The Mark 13 was unreliable and required the Avenger to fly at low level and at low speed (130 mph) before dropping it, essentially making the plane a sitting duck. Excepting the torpedo issues, which plagued the U.S. forces for the entire war, the Navy was able to adjust and utilize the Avenger to its potential. Because of the Avenger's payload capacity, excellent navigation and radar assets, and generous range, it was ideal for anti-submarine warfare, search and rescue, spotting and mine laying. The Avenger could also easily be fitted with night capabilities and would often escort F-6Fs to intercept Japanese aircraft at night. In short, the Avenger was versatile and invaluable. Its main primary role, however, meant that it was inevitably vulnerable to heavy losses. The VT-11 would lose twenty-two aircraft over the course of two five-month deployments overseas flying all types of missions.

After extensive training at Pearl Harbor and Barbers Point, Hawaii, which began in November 1942, the squadron embarked on their first overseas combat deployment in February 1943. The tour would take the squadron to several different land bases: first, a detachment of six aircraft was sent to Kanton Island for anti-submarine patrols, then the squadron was stationed at Nandi in the Fiji Islands on 28 February 1943. On 17 April 1943, the VT-11 was moved to Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, where they would spend the long summer flying patrols, nighttime mine-laying missions, and general strike sorties - all geared towards the Solomon campaign. The squadron lost seven aircraft in the South Pacific while operating out of Nandi and Henderson Field.

By the end of the summer, the VT-11 was back in the states and training in Alameda, California. That training continued when they were stationed at Hilo, Hawaii in April 1944, where the squadron sank its first Japanese submarine while on an anti-submarine patrol on 5 May 1944.

Indicative of the squadron's devotion to its mission, the VT-11 unofficially called themselves Saufley's Satans in reference to Richard Caswell Saufley, who, as Naval Aviator #14, was an early pioneer in naval aviation that joined the Navy's flight school when it was established in Annapolis and later taught at the school after it had moved down to Pensacola, FL. Saufley set several altitude and endurance records as well as test the use of gyroscopes for delivering ordnance. He died at 31 years in a plane crash in 1916. The main training airstrip in Pensacola is named after him.

The VT-11 joined Air Wing Eleven (CVG-11) for its second deployment, which started on 29 September 1944. The unit found itself on the deck of the USS Hornet (CV-12) during operations on Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The Hornet was an extremely busy carrier at the time, going 18 months without pulling into a port and, during that time, making three rotations to accommodate three separate air wings. CVG-11 was the second air group in that rotation. Over a two-year period, CVG-11 wreaked havoc on Japanese land, sea and air forces - taking out over 600 aircraft, twenty-four destroyers, three cruisers and 200,000 pounds of merchant shipping. The VT-11 conducted the first daylight raids over Bougainville in New Guinea.

On 10 October 1944, the VT-11 participated in the first strikes against Japanese forces in Okinawa. Two weeks later, as a decisive naval confrontation neared at Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, the VT-11 was one of the first in action, heading for the center of three elements in the Japanese fleet that were converging on the American 7th Fleet, which was protecting the invasion forces on the Philippine islands. While the Battle of Midway changed the momentum of the war, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history, finished the Japanese navy as a serious threat. However, victory for the Americans was achieved at considerable cost. The first kamikaze attacks of the war occurred during the battle at Leyte and helped sink two escort carriers and three destroyers. During the battle the Japanese lost four large carriers, three battleships, nine cruisers, eleven destroyers and over 500 aircraft. Of those, the VT-11 accounted for three cruisers and a hit on one battleship. During the battle, the Hornet was 340 miles from Leyte, well beyond the normal radius of activity for a carrier when the VT-11 launched, meaning that the missions were over five hours long. For their efforts, eight VT-11 pilots earned Naval Crosses, seven recipients for the first round of sorties, and an eighth for a sortie the next day, which accounted for the third Japanese cruiser.

The VT-11 continued support operations over Leyte and Luzon and other parts of the Philippines throughout the rest of 1944. The squadron CO, LCDR R. Denniston, Jr., was shot down over Manila Harbor on 13 November 1944. By December, the squadron was focusing its strikes on Luzon in preparation for the landings on Mindoro. A heavy storm struck the fleet in the middle of December, which delayed combat operations temporarily and cost the Americans three destroyers and four escort carriers.

In January, the Hornet entered the South China Sea, a first for U.S. forces since the outbreak of the war, and the VT-11 hit targets on Hong Kong, Formosa, the Ryukyus Islands and up and down French Indochina. They also continued strikes on Luzon in preparation for more landings.

By February 1945, the VT-11 was working its way back home. The Hornet dropped the squadron off at Ulithi in the Caroline Islands, along with the rest of Air Group 11, so that the ship could take on the next air wing. From there, the squadron hitched a ride to Hawaii on the escort carrier, the USS Kasaan Bay and from Hawaii the squadron boarded the seaplane tender, USS Curtiss, for transit back to the states. The squadron would not see combat again during the Pacific War.

On 25 June 1945, the squadron received its first official patch drawn by Walt Disney (shown to the right). Whether "Saufley's Satans" continued to be their name is doubtful, at least in any official sense, since that name does not appear in any squadron histories. On 15 November 1946, the VT-11 was re designated VA-12A (or Attack Squadron Twelve Able) and trained extensively with CVG-11 before embarking on 9 October 1947 on the newly built USS Valley Forge for a globe circling cruise, the first for a Navy Air Group. The significance of the cruise on the squadron's history is expressed in the motto the squadron would, in a few years, adopt: "We cover the world, day and night," and on the logo that would replace Disney's torpedo-slinging cherub. The cruise also planted the seeds for the squadron's nickname, "Arabs," because of the squadron's passage through the Suez Canal.

By 1948 the TBM Avengers were obsolete and in July, when the VA-12A received another squadron designation: the VA-115 (Atkron One One Five), they began a transition to the Douglas AD Skyraider. Instead of a crew of three, like the Avenger had, the Skyraider was a single seat affair, though it was not any smaller than the Avenger. For a single engine, single seat affair, the Skyraider was a big workhorse of a plane. As jet technology rapidly advanced throughout the late forties all the way into the 60s, the Navy retired and acquired aircraft at an astonishing rate to keep up with the advances. The piston engine Skyraider was so versatile and useful to the Navy that, while many jets would see service for just a few years, the sturdy prop remained in use for a quarter of a century filling various roles that jets were not yet ready to handle. The Skyraider could carry over four times as much ordnance as the the Avenger (in fact, it could carry its weight in bombs and as much as the large four engine B-17) and could fly that load faster and farther. The Skyraider could also remain stable at very slow speeds, which made it invaluable as a close ground support weapon since it could accurately concentrate fire on a small area for a long period of time. There was nothing flashy about the Skyraider; it was utilitarian and rugged. It is no surprise, then, that the VA-115 and the Skyraider would share a twenty-year history. That history would have more than its share of combat.

After the transition to the Skyraider was complete, the VA-115, along with CVG-11, deployed aboard the USS Philippine Sea in San Diego on 5 July, ten days after the N. Korean invasion of the South. The first stop was Hawaii, where the ship went through qualifications. Korea was the second stop, Point Oboe, which they reached by 5 August - around the time when the UN forces had formed the Pusan Perimeter and the first waves of reinforcements began to arrive. The Philippine Sea took over as the flagship for Task Force 77.

The VA-115 flew strikes in and around Inchon during the lead up to the amphibious invasion, then concentrated fire power deeper into enemy territory, knocking out transportation and communication lines, preventing the North Koreans from bringing in reinforcements. The VA-115 pounded enemy strongholds all during the push to Seoul and beyond to Wansan after the second amphibious landing.

While operating over Sinuiju, a town at the mouth of the Yalu River, the VA-115 encountered MiG-15s for the first time. When the rugged Korean terrain froze over and hordes of Chinese Communists crossed into Korea, the Americans were forced into a long desperate retreat from the Yalu River. With mechanized divisions and heavy equipment, the Americans were confined to the narrow mountain roads while the Chinese Communists, primarily infantry-based, were able to move more freely in the mountains, sniping and ambushing the retreating Americans. While the Eighth Army struggled with the 250 mile retreat, the longest in American history, the 1st and 7th Marines performed incredibly during their fighting retreat against a vastly larger force. The VA-115 provided close air support for the 7th Marines during a desperate battle near the Chosin Reservoir and all through their pullback, blasting a path through the frozen ground to Hungnam position using napalm, 20 mm cannons, bombs and missiles. Upon a successful strike, VA-115 pilots would hear the Marines' radio: "Thanks Arab, now the way is clear..." Apparently, the name Arab, though not the official moniker of the squadron, was already in common use. All in all, over a 150,000 military personnel and civilians were able to evacuate under the aerial umbrella the VA-115 helped to provide.

In late March 1951, the VA-115, along with CVG-11, transferred from the Philippine Sea to the Valley Forge, while the ships were in Yokosuka, for their return home. It had been an intense nine month cruise that saw little break in the action beyond stops for refueling, re-arming and repair. During that period, the VA-115 only enjoyed brief excursions to Sasebo or Yokosuka before having to return to Point Oboe for further combat missions. The Philippine Sea was putting up to 140 sorties a day during the cruise and was poised to continue operations after CVG-11 was exchanged for CVG-2.

Once back in the states, the VA-115 continued training exercise while in southern California until they departed, again, aboard the Philippine Sea on 31 December 1951. After brief stops in Hawaii and Yokosuka, the ship was back at Point Oboe. From February to July 1952, the squadron focused strikes on North Korean rail transport as well as communication and industrial supply facilities. On 23 and 24 June, the VA-115 conducted the first attacks on N. Korean hydroelectric plants.

When the VA-115 left Korea the second time, in August 1952, they had flown 2,268 combat mission. For their efforts, they were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. The VA-115 began a third Korean tour in July 1953, this time aboard the USS Kearsarge, but as they were preparing to launch missions the ceasefire went into effect. The remainder of that cruise was spent patrolling the DMZ. The squadron enjoyed liberty at Sasebo, Yokosuka, Manila and Hong Kong before returning to the US. in February 1954.

The VA-115 was off again, with the Kearsarge, to the Western Pacific. Although there was no war in Korea, Cold War tensions with Red China were heating up again. During the Tachen Island evacuation in February 1955, the VA-115 flew cover to protect the KMT forces and Tachen civilians who had come under bombardment. Over 26,000 people were evacuated.

The VA-115 toured the Western Pacific on the USS Essex for one six month cruise, before joining the USS Shangri-La, a light carrier, for two cruises from 1958 to 1959 that culminated into 15 months at sea in the same waters. It was during the first cruise on the Shangri-La that Red Chinese began shelling the islands of Quemoy and Matsu in preparation of an invasion. The Seventh Fleet, which had responded to the Tachen Crisis in 1955, responded again. The show of force on behalf of the fleet, including the VA-115, deterred the Communist invasion.

During a nine month cruise in the Western Pacific on the USS Hancock, the squadron received the coveted Battle "E" Efficiency award, officially adopted the name "Arab", and acquired a new insignia, which reflected the squadron's legacy and mission - the sun and stars represent day and night, the horizon with the longitude and latitude lines is the earth, which shows that the squadron has been around the world, and the chevron is pointing to the time 1:15. Although there have been some alterations, this insignia has stayed intact and is currently in use by the squadron.

In August 1961, the VA-115 joined a skeleton crew on the East Coast to accompany the newly commissioned USS Kitty Hawk on its transfer voyage to the West coast. The voyage took the squadron through exercises in the Caribbean and around the Cape of Good Hope before delivering them to Miramar, California where the CVW-11 was to go through an eight month training cycle.

After the training, the air group rejoined the Kitty Hawk for another three cruises to the Western Pacific from September 1962 to June 1966, where the VA-115 would get two more Battle "E" awards for competitions at sea. During this time, while off of San Diego, the VA-115 participated in a demonstration of the Kitty Hawks firepower for President Kennedy. The second cruise, from October 1963 to July 1964 remains the longest peacetime cruise on record.

The final tour the VA-115 took with the Kitty Hawk would mark the first time combat tour since Korea. The Kitty Hawk operated in the Gulf of Tonkin for six months. The squadron flew over 8000 hours over 2051 sorties and dropping 7 million pounds of ordnance in North Vietnam. They flew close air support and armed reconnaissance both inland and at sea where they provided air cover to convoys. Because the Skyraider could move slow and low, the VA-115 also flew rescue combat air patrol where they would circle and protect downed pilots behind enemy lines until a rescue chopper could come an fish them out of the jungle.

Upon returning to Lemoore, California in June of 1966, the VA-115 left its long affiliation with CVW-11 to join CVW-5, which it would remain with for the next quarter century. From January to July 1967, the VA-115 went on its second Vietnam tour aboard the USS Hancock, flying many of the same types of missions it had flown with the Kitty Hawk. When the cruise ended and the squadron returned to Lemoore it was put on a rare inactive stand-down status, though it remained on the list of the Navy's active squadron status. The squadron was essentially disbanded while the VA-125 Rough Raiders assumed the administrative functions of the squadron.

The VA-115 was reactivated two and half years later in January 1970, assigned to Whidbey Island, Washington, and transitioned to its third aircraft: the Grumman A-6 Intruder.The Intruder was the Navy's all-weather day and night medium attack plane. It had a crew of two: a pilot and a BN (bombardier/navigator), which allowed it to handle the most sophisticated precision guided ordnance. It was a sub-sonic jet with a top speed of 650 mph, well over twice the speed of the Skyraider, and was designed for low-level flight in adverse conditions. It could carry up to 18,ooo pounds of bombs, which it could deliver with great accuracy. The Intruder was also adept at flushing out SAM sites and destroying them. A slightly larger variant, the EA-6 Prowler, with two additional crew members, is still the Navy's primary electronic warfare aircraft (slated to be replaced by the EA-18G Growler in the near future).

Along with the new aircraft, the VA-115 received a new carrier assignment aboard the newly modernized USS Midway. After an initial cruise from April 1971 to November 1971, the VA-115, as part of the Midway's air wing, CVW-5, found itself back at Yankee Station flying combat sorties over Vietnam. They took part in Linebacker I, the escalated U.S. air campaign in the summer and fall of 1972 designed to stop the North Vietnamese offensive and bring the communist back to the negotiating table. For its performance, the squadron received a Presidential Unit Citation.

Directly after the ceasefire in Vietnam, while the U.S. was in an otherwise retreating pattern militarily, the VA-115 and the Midway embarked on a permanent forward deployment in Yokosuka, Japan, which allowed the U.S. to reduce its number of aircraft carriers while maintaining an adequate carrier presence in the Far East to meet its security obligations. The combination of the Midway and the VA-115 was a natural one because both saw themselves as the type of fighting force that preferred it on the front lines - defending the Far East as their home turf while other ships and squadron were visited the Western Pacific waters part time.

Being in Yokosuka meant that the VA-115 was a long way from the policy makers in the U.S. This, in many ways, left the ship and squadron to do what they wanted to do. In the mid seventies, when the Navy wanted the VA-115 to change its name from Arab to something else for reasons of cultural sensitivity, the squadron, at first, tried to oblige and suggested various alternatives with an Arab theme - names like Camel or Camel Jockeys - but the Navy insisted on the name Eagle Hill. The squadron refused to accept the change and till about 1978 continued to refer to themselves as the Arabs. Had the squadron been based in California or Washington, chances are their defiance would not have been so successful. But being along way from the U.S. also had its downside. During the same time the squadron was resisting its name change, there was some anxiety around the fact that it had been some time since the squadron had earned a Battle "E" unit citation. Part of the reason for this was that the VA-115 had spent three years on a active/in-active status, but the other reason is that they simply had not had an inspection in some time because they had been far away in the Western Pacific. When they did finally have an inspection, it was almost assured that they would not pass, which they didn't. In fact, the VA-115 would not win another Battle E until 1978. Regardless, the identification of the squadron as a sort of outcast that spent its time at the forefront of America's defenses was a source of pride.

When the Midway was in Yokosuka, the VA-115 was based at nearby Atsugi. When the ship pulled into Subic Bay, Philippines, the squadron operated out of the adjacent airbase at Cubi Point. From 1973 to 1991, the VA-115 went on no less than 43 cruises on the Midway, taking it all over the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean - including visits to Pusan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Karachi, Guam and other exotic locales.

During Operation EAGLE PULL and Operation FREQUENT WIND in April 1975, the VA-115 aircraft were moved to Cubi Point to make room on the Midway for the helicopters that were used to evacuate 2800 South Vietnamese when Saigon fell. For this operation, the VA-115 received the Navy Unit Commendation and the Armed Forces Expeditionary medal.

In addressing the tensions on the Korean peninsula, the VA-115 participated in a joint training exercise with S. Korean forces right off the DMZ line, evaluating the coordination and effectiveness of their defense posture. Not long after this exercise, called Operation TEAM SPIRIT, the VA-115 was back again in August 1976, after tensions had escalate after N. Korean soldiers brutally murdered two American officers and wounded nine others who were cutting down a poplar tree that was obstructing the view from a S. Korean checkpoint. Operation PAUL BUNYAN was a show of force involving the Army, Air Force and the Seventh Fleet aimed at backing up the second attempt to remove the tree.

The VA-115 and the Midway continued to engage in joint exercises with countries in the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean, including S. Korea (TEAM SPIRIT '76 and '78) Japan, Taiwan, Pakistan and Iran (MIDLINK '75 and '77). The squadron also participated in war games with the air wings of the Kitty Hawk and the Constellation.

In April of 1979, the Midway cruised to the Gulf of Aden after fighting broke out in Yemen. They also maintained a presence when the Shah fell in Iran and anti-American demonstrations broke out and were back again when the embassy was seized. Six months later, the VA-115 was operating in South Korea after the massacre and several hundred people in the sixth largest city in S. Korea, Kwangju. They continued operations until the civil unrest caused by the massacre died down.

By 1978, the squadron had changed their name from Arabs to Eagles and transitioned from the A-6A and A-6B to the A-6E - the last significant variation of the Intruders. In the course of a couple of years, they received two Battle "E" awards, a CNO safety award and the CINCPACFLT Golden Anchor. In 1982 and 1983 the Midway became the first carrier to operate, over the course of two cruises full of heavy seas, fog and cold, in the Northern Pacific since World War II. During those years, the squadron also participated in the first two STARM missile exercises, which included the first live firing of the missile.

The Midway went through an update for most of 1986 and was back patrolling the Western Pacific in 1987. On 10 October 1990, the VA-115, after flying a series of missions protecting Kuwaiti tankers in the Persian Gulf, began flying combat missions during Operation DESERT STORM. They flew 456 sorties and dropped over 700,000 lbs of bombs on Iraqi targets and destroyed 12 Iraqi vessels.

The Midway left Yokosuka in August 1991 to sail back to the States for her retirement. The VA-115 transitioned to the USS Independence, which was replacing the Midway's spot as the Navy's forward based carrier. Aboard their new home, the VA-115 continued operating over Iraq during Operation SOUTHERN WATCH, where they enforced the No Fly Zone. During the operation, they flew 115 combat missions and earned a Meritorious Unit Commendation. They continued participating in SOUTHERN WATCH until 1994.In 1996, the VA-115 was assigned a new home in Lemoore, California. They also began the transition to the F-18 Hornet and received a new designation, VFA-115. In 1997, the new VFA-115 Eagles were serving on the USS Abraham Lincoln and flying contingency operations around Taiwan. In June 1998, they were back in the Persian Gulf and participating in the ongoing Operation SOUTHERN WATCH. That same year, the VFA-115 became the first squadron to receive the brand new F/A-18 Super Hornet as well as the first to receive the Advanced Tactical FLIR (the latest in night vision).

In July 2002, during their first cruise flying the Super Hornet along with CVW-14, the squadron participated in Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (as well as continuing flying sorties for SOUTHERN WATCH) flying 215 sorties and dropping 22 JDAMs on 14 targets. In 2003, during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, the squadron dropped 380,000 lbs of ordnance and, as tankers, passed 3.5 million pounds of fuel to other aircraft. They received their sixth Navy Unit Commendation.

The squadron deployed on the USS John C. Stennis in May 2004 and participated in various excercises to develop a new fleet response plan. The squadron authored a comprehensive joint doctrine for maritime interdiction - now a primary training focus for West coast strike squadrons.

In January 2007, the VFA-115 deployed aboard their last carrier to date, the USS Ronald Reagan. Since April 2007, the squadron has been shore based in Lemoore, California participating in training exercises.

The squadron will turn 66 in October 2008. For most of that time, they have maintained a presence at the tip of the sword of U.S. naval defenses, like a sheepdog, always vigilant, ready to protect the sheep and prepared to drain the swamp before the U.S. finds itself up to its ass in alligators.